Anne-Marie-Louise de Pange (1762-99) was married to Antoine Mégret de Sérilly, Treasurer General in the War Ministry, and bore him four children. At the time this bust was sculpted they lived in a splendid house in the fashionable Marais district of Paris. In 1794, during the height of the Revolution, the couple were accused of plotting to assist Madame Elisabeth, a sister of Louis XVI. Antoine was executed and Anne-Marie was spared only because she claimed to be pregnant. After two further marriages she died in 1799 at the age of thirty-six. Houdon, the leading French sculptor of his time, was renowned for his portrait busts. This superb example was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1783.